Twitter Paid Designer $6 For Its Icon

The bird on Twitter's home page, familiar to
millions, is small, cute and fun, and implies communication and
anticipation. One might say it's the perfect graphic for Twitter.
Yet the company paid its designer at most $6, without
attribution.

Some designers claim
crowdsourcing is evil because it devalues their work by driving
down prices, allowing amateurs into the game and forcing people
to work "on spec," meaning that they don't get paid unless their
design is chosen. Others see it as a natural evolution driven by
supply, demand and technology.

Simon Oxley, the Japan-based Brit who licensed the bird graphic
to Twitter for the price of a sandwich, through iStockphoto, sits
somewhere in the middle.